Witching Hour Nears with Premiere of ‘The Secret Circle’

No new teen drama is more anticipated than “The Secret Circle.” The series premieres Thursday at 9/8c – immediately following “The Vampire Diaries.” The two share an executive producer, Kevin Williamson. They are both supernatural shows about high schoolers, but “Secret Circle” is not a spin-off of “Vampire Diaries.” “Secret Circle” focuses on Cassie (Britt Robertson), who moves to a small town and discovers she’s the missing member of a coven of teen witches. There are no vampires or werewolves, just a group of teenagers struggling to understand their powers. Several members of the cast gave a primer on why Chance Harbor, Washington will be as intriguing as Mystic Falls, Virginia.

The Characters Are Young, But The Writing Is Mature: Though the show is about teenage witches, it has more in common thematically with “True Blood” than “Sabrina The Teenage Witch.” “I’m very impressed with how dark the show is getting,” says Thomas Dekker (Adam). “We’re getting more and more threatened by outside sources that react and behave in unexpected ways.” Sums up Shelly Hennig (Diana): “It’s dark. It’s sexy. It’s interesting, and, of course, you can wait to find out what happens.”

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Faye Is Not Bad, She’s Just Drawn That Way: Faye (Pheobe Tonkin), is the pilot’s break-out character. The town’s self-proclaimed bad girl likes to cause trouble, but she’s an important part of the coven, and according to Tonkin, she’s not evil, just misguided. “We’re going to see why she is the way she is and see her family life. Her Dad died when she was little. The only person that she’s had in her life is her mother, who is a bad influence… She’s had her heart broken.” She and Cassie will not be enemies. Instead, they will “develop an odd friendship.”

Diana Is Good, Not A Goodie Two Shoes: Diana seems like the perfect overachiever. Hennig explains that she is Type A for a reason. “Diana’s the leader of the circle, so it’s up to her to keep everything under control. She has a lot of responsibility. When things go wrong, she feels a lot of guilt. Maybe it will be too much pressure one day.”

Three Witches Make For A Powerful Love Triangle: Cassie feels an immediate connection with Adam. There’s only one problem: Diana is his girlfriend. So who belongs together? “There’s always safe and then there’s fun. So we have to see which one turns out to be which,” says Dekker. “Cassie and I have [a fixation] on each other that we can’t deny. I’m of course with Diana. You get to find out more about that relationship and why we should care.” Since Cassie and Diana are genuine friends, this is not a typical teen rivalry. According to Henning, “Diana truly and genuinely likes Cassie. But there’s a little bit of issue when Adam’s involved. But that’s the frustration because Diana really likes Cassie as well. She’s in love with Adam, so it’s going to be a good triangle.”

The Adult Characters Are As Important As the Teens: The characters parents, some of whom made up the previous generation of the coven, many of whom are dead, are an integral part of the show. “What I really love about Kevin Williamson’s work is that the relationships are always true. They’re real relationships,” says Hennig. “The relationships between the adults and the kids are very, very powerful and interesting. You’ll find out more and more gradually.” Tonkin explains, “You’re going to find out why our parents all died. That’s going to be really interesting to see what happened.” Dekker explains, “The idea is that [our ancestors] escaped in 1692 from Salem to this town. We’re all descendents of this thing we don’t really know much about. We’re uncovering that as we go along.”